With the For Azeroth! promotion in effect now is a great time to get started on collecting Graves, if you haven't done it already. Below are a few tips to help you on your way to your new pet.

#1. Always play with a friend. You get an xp bonus for playing with a friend, and the more friends you play with, the more xp you get.

#2. Use a Recruit-A-Friend link! If you have a friend who already plays Heroes of the Storm, ask them for their Recruit-A-Friend link.Using a RAF link will immediately grant you a 5-day stimpack and access to the Raynor hero.

Some notes about this link:

*Recruits must be level 5 or lower to be eligible for recruitment.*Rewards are only awarded in the game region where the initial recruitment took place. For example, if a player in the Americas sends a recruitment link to players in Europe, the recruits will not receive rewards unless they also play in the Americas.

If you don't have a friend who plays Heroes of the Storm, EU players can use my RAF link below (see comments for a US RAF link). Please note, the only bonus I will gain for your using this link is a HotS mount if another 9 players reach level 10. I do not care about this reward at all (nor do I expect to earn it). I am only sharing the link so that players can get a free 5-day stimpack and two free heroes (Raynor immediately, and Sylvanas when you reach level 10).

#3.For the best XP per match, you will want to destroy all enemy forts and towers. It should also be noted that once you have more than 4 levels than the opposing team, you will get more XP for killing minions than heroes. Matches that last only 3 minutes or less grant significantly less xp than longer matches, so you may be better off playing with AI teammates, who do not simply want to rush the middle lane and win as fast as possible.

#4. You cannot AFK during the matches. This was something people used to do when the promotion first came out. If your hero is inactive during a match, you will be removed from the match and you will not gain any XP.

#5. You will earn a 7-day stimpack when you hit level 10. With this in mind, you might want to save hitting level 10 for a time when you know you will not be out of town, or even for the next day, if you know that the next match would otherwise be the last match of the day.

#6. You can play versus AI on beginner mode and it won't impact your XP gain. XP and Gold rewards do not scale with difficulty level, so you don't have to torture yourself with the harder difficulty settings if that's not your cup of tea. (Thanks to Quintessence for asking about this.)

#7. Have fun! It may sound like a useless tip but it's actually the most important one. HotS is a game after all! If you go in considering it a chore, it will absolutely be one. Try to relax and don't take the game too seriously. If you die, you just respawn a few seconds later anyhow! Reading a quick beginner's guide might help you become more relaxed in game, as you'll understand the mechanics better (one of the most important tips: let the minions go ahead of you, so they take all the damage. When they are nearly all dead, make sure you move away from any nearby towers or forts). These beginner guides on reddit might help:

Finally, don't forget to pay attention to the loading screen. It'll let you know what map you'll be on and what objectives you need to complete.

That's all I have for now. I've never played any ranked matches, and I've never played brawls, so I don't know what kind of xp you get from those play modes. If you have any other tips, or you want to share your RAF link, please do so in the comments! Remember, the RAF links are region locked, so make sure you use one from the correct region.

Good luck and have fun!

Last edited by Ravyn on February 27th, 2017, 5:38 pm, edited 4 times in total.

Question regarding AI matches for experience: Does difficulty affect how much experience you get?

You can change the difficulty from Beginner to Elite (I think that's what it's called); Beginner being much easier than the hardest difficulty. If experience doesn't matter, I would suggest playing on the easiest setting for faster matches.

Quintessence wrote:Question regarding AI matches for experience: Does difficulty affect how much experience you get?

You can change the difficulty from Beginner to Elite (I think that's what it's called); Beginner being much easier than the hardest difficulty. If experience doesn't matter, I would suggest playing on the easiest setting for faster matches.

XP and gold rewards do not scale with difficulty, so I think it's best just to play on Beginner, like you said. I actually wanted to include that in the OP and forgot.

It doesn't make much difference if you play shorter games which award less xp (but therefore complete more games per hour) or longer games that award more xp (but you complete fewer games per hour). I usually start getting tired of a map around the 10-minute mark but still try to destroy all the opponent's forts and towers before winning the game. The nice thing about the longer games is that you will get a nice chunk of xp which feels a lot better than just getting a small amount that doesn't move the bar much.

My neighbor is trying to get Graves ... hmmm ... not sure I want to try this!

You are wise. HotS, for someone who's not into that sort of game, is a bit dumb. And since you can no longer start a game with A.I. teammates and just go into kitchen to make tea, is even more painful for those of us not into it.

If you do go for it, spend a few dollars or euros or whatever for a stimpack, the bonus XP is really worth it. Basically an A.I. team is whole lot better at game than you, or even you and your neighbor are. They seem to understand how to play.

One motivation, after 15 games with a friend, the Primal Flamesaber mount is currently sort of cool and will remain so for a few weeks until 74% of player base has it.

I did this a while back and was absolutely dreading it. Then I gave myself a talking to. I decided to actually give the game a chance. You get XP whether you win or lose so either way you are making progress. I tried out a few characters and finally found a couple that I really enjoyed playing. I read a quick guide to playing HOTS, which gave some useful tips like trying to keep the friendly npc minions in front of you etc.

I went in with an open mind, knowing that this wasn't "my" sort of game but wanting to make the best of it and actually ended up enjoying it. Don't stress yourself out over it, it's not worth it. Just try to have a little fun with it.

Mehetabel wrote:I did this a while back and was absolutely dreading it. Then I gave myself a talking to. I decided to actually give the game a chance. You get XP whether you win or lose so either way you are making progress. I tried out a few characters and finally found a couple that I really enjoyed playing. I read a quick guide to playing HOTS, which gave some useful tips like trying to keep the friendly npc minions in front of you etc.

I went in with an open mind, knowing that this wasn't "my" sort of game but wanting to make the best of it and actually ended up enjoying it. Don't stress yourself out over it, it's not worth it. Just try to have a little fun with it.

Very well said. It is surprisingly kinda fun and pretty quick to do. Add in you get bonus xp doing it with friends and it isn't so bad. Sometimes doing things outside of ones preferred zone can be fun. Go into it with an open or positive mindset and it will be a pretty decent time. Go into it with a closed or upset mindset and it will be no fun and drag on and on.

Mehetabel and Digem, you are both absolutely right. It is so vital to go into this with an open mind, that I probably should have included in the list of tips! Maybe I should also find a short but sweet HotS beginner's guide and provide a link to it. Little things like letting your minions go ahead of you or even just being aware of the map objectives make the game feel less chaotic. I think the most important thing is not to take it too seriously and just have a laugh if you get gunned down by a tower.

Getting Graves absolutely can be done and it can even be a fun trip It does take a little bit of time, but when you've reached level 20, you'll definitely feel like you've earned that little terror.

When I played HotS for Graves, I was totally stressed out over it. It really felt like a grind to me and I was soooo glad when it was finally complete.

But this time, for the flamesaber, I decided I was not gonna do it that way. Instead I just picked Malfurion, who is a support hero and for each match, I picked one person and I just followed them around and healed them. It made it so much easier to play just having the one thing to concentrate on and I was at least doing something that contributed to the win.

HotS is still not my game, but it's not the bugaboo it was. Good luck out there!

I abandoned my attempts for Graves when I concluded that my hardware at that moment just couldn't handle it. Now I've it better, but I've put already that pet in the "unobtainable" domain… at least until that event.

I can tell that like everything else, playing with someone friendly is way better than doing it alone, after all sometimes one can just enjoy the companionship no matter what they do. The randoms, if you decide to give them a try, don't seem to bite either (at least versus AI). I don't know the characters' capabilities very well, and I Leeroy a lot , but even the best one can sometimes find themselves in an unfortunate situation.

*now, how to arrange a meeting of more people known to me so we can make plans about conquering the pet battle scene… Just kidding, of course. *